Child labor major key events

By Emmanuella A.

  • Early trade unions propose state minimum age laws

    Union members at the National Trades’ Union Convention make the first formal, public proposal recommending that states establish minimum ages for factory work

  • First state child labor law

    Massachusetts requires children under 15 working in factories to attend school at least 3 months/yea

  • States begin limiting children’s work days

    Massachusetts limits children’s work days to 10 hours; other states soon pass similar laws—but most of these laws are not consistently enforced

  • Labor movement urges minimum age law

    Working Men’s Party proposes banning the employment of children under the age of 14

  • Newly formed AFL supports state minimum age laws

    The first national convention of the American Federation of Labor passes a resolution calling on states to ban children under 14 from all gainful employmen

  • New York unions win state reform

    Led by Samuel Gompers, the New York labor movement successfully sponsors legislation prohibiting cigar making in tenements, where thousands of young children work in the trade

  • New federal law sanctions state violators

    First federal child labor law prohibits movement of goods across state lines if minimum age laws are violated (law in effect only until 1918, when it’s declared unconstitutional, then revised, passed, and declared unconstitutional again)